Numerous standards are accepted to ensure smooth interoperability between network equipment of telecommunications vendors and the many mobile wireless terminal types operating in a given wireless communication network (e.g., those from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project or “3GPP”). These standards describe acceptable ways for communication to take place between terminals and network equipment, and are understood as setting forth basic communication ethics. Wireless terminal manufacturers are expected to follow these basic ethics. However, a selfish actor may benefit by increasing costs to other actors. For example, a wireless terminal manufacturer may seek to extend their terminal battery life by having their mobile terminals unnecessarily attach and detach to the network every minute. Thus, wireless terminals acting in selfish ways could provide an incremental benefit to their users, but this in turn could cause network operators to suffer through unnecessary signaling overhead, unnecessary traffic, etc.
While terminals can be tested in lab environments prior to being approved for network usage, providing a priori verification that such selfish behavior will not occur is not always possible, because lab testing requires considerable time and resources, and because the number of wireless terminal types is rapidly increasing and some manufacturers do not provide their terminals for testing prior to deployment. Additionally, prior wireless terminal evaluation methods have been insufficient to simulate the multitude of firmware and/or operating system versions continuously appearing during the lifespan of a terminal type.